RismadarVoice Reporters, May 29, 2026
The Federal Government and the World Bank have restructured the $500m HOPE for Quality Basic Education for All programme, reducing funding allocations for classroom construction while expanding the number of states eligible for intervention under the initiative.
Details of the restructuring were contained in a World Bank restructuring paper dated May 20, 2026, obtained from the bank’s website on Thursday.
According to the document, the funding earmarked for the construction of 13,000 new classrooms was significantly reduced following changes to grant financing from the Global Partnership for Education.
The World Bank said the restructuring became necessary after Nigeria’s GPE System Transformation Grant allocation was cut from $107.59m to $53.975m.
“These changes stem from a reduction in the total allocation for Nigeria’s GPE STG funding from $107.59m to $53.975m,” the report stated.
The bank explained that the initial arrangement had split the GPE funding between the World Bank and the United Nations Children’s Fund. However, under the revised structure, the entire reduced grant allocation will now be managed solely through the World Bank-supervised HOPE-Education programme.
“Originally, co-grant agents, the World Bank and the United Nations Children’s Fund, were selected to each manage half of the initial STG funding allocation. However, with the reduced GPE financing, the Government of Nigeria proposed that the reduced allocation be managed entirely by the World Bank through HOPE-Education,” the report noted.
The programme, approved by the World Bank Board on March 31, 2025, is funded through a $500m International Development Association credit and a $52.18m GPE grant.
Under the restructuring, the total allocation for Disbursement-Linked Indicator 4, covering the creation of new primary school classrooms through community participation, was reduced from $5.7m to $2.55m.
Funding for government-community agreements supporting classroom construction in 15 states was cut from $500,000 to $300,000, while allocations for the construction of 13,000 classrooms declined from $5.2m to $2.25m.
Despite the funding reduction, the target of constructing 13,000 classrooms remains unchanged in the updated results framework.
The World Bank stated that the restructuring would not affect the programme’s development objectives, implementation timeline, or institutional arrangements.
“There are no changes to the Program Development Objective, closing date, or institutional arrangements. This is the first restructuring of the operation,” the report added.
The revised arrangement also expanded the number of states eligible for targeted interventions under Results Area 1 from three to six, with Abia, Bauchi and Kwara added to the list.
The updated GPE-supported states are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Kebbi, Kwara and Lagos.
The restructuring further adjusted funding allocations across key education indicators, including teaching and learning materials, teacher mentoring, literacy assessments, school grants and annual school census reporting.
Under DLI 1, which focuses on the availability of teaching and learning materials, the World Bank introduced a new $7.419m allocation to ensure that 80 per cent of public primary schools in GPE-supported states have adequate materials for Grades 1 to 3. Another $3.569m allocation was approved for Grades 4 to 6.
Funding under DLI 2, which targets improvements in structured pedagogy practices among teachers, was reduced from $14.866m to $12.664m following downward adjustments to several allocations and the removal of one performance indicator.
Similarly, allocations under DLI 3, covering literacy and numeracy proficiency, dropped from $7.934m to $5.06m after the removal of a $3.9m allocation linked to improving literacy and numeracy outcomes in IDA-supported states.
Funding tied to out-of-school children under DLI 5 also declined from $1.733m to $1.283m.
However, allocations for annual school grants under DLI 7 increased from $4.73m to $7.865m, while funding for annual school census reporting under DLI 8 rose from $4.45m to $5.676m.
The World Bank said the restructuring would require adjustments to the verification process for GPE-supported states, while the existing verification mechanism for IDA-financed states would remain unchanged.
According to the report, the HOPE-Education programme is designed “to improve foundational learning outcomes, increase access to basic education and enhance education systems in participating States.”
The programme became effective on February 26, 2026, with the World Bank noting that implementation had already recorded “early progress.”
